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Efacec builds 400-ton transformer

Photo courtesy Efacec The 230 KV 900 MVA Generator Step-Up shell transformer, built at Efacec in Rincon, weighs 804,000 pounds and is capable of supplying power to a mid-sized city.

The Efacec Power Transformer facility in Rincon has announced it has completed, and is shipping, the largest electrical transformer made in the United States in the last 20 years. The transformer weighs 804,000 pounds and is capable of supplying power to a mid-sized city.

This type of transformer is used to increase the voltage of electricity that generators produce to the appropriate levels for transmission to areas serving consumers. A special 200-foot-long railcar carrying the unit left last Wednesday for one of the largest investor-owned electric utilities in the country. The utility asked that its name not be released.

The transformer is the biggest the Portuguese-based Efacec Group has ever made and is the largest manufactured domestically in the last two decades.

“This is a record-setting achievement in many ways, including the size and quality of the transformer, as well as the use of U.S. labor and suppliers,” said Jorge Guerra, chief operating officer for Efacec U.S. Operations. “Our U.S. plant remains in a very special, select group of top-level transformer manufacturers worldwide.”